The Millett story begins with Betty and Ray Millett, who founded Millett Industries in the mid 1970s. Ray had been an engineer at Cox model Airplane Company for a number of years, working with small, injection-molded plastic engine parts. From this process Ray developed the idea for the injection-molded steel parts that would pave the way for his many advancements within the gun industry. Millett Industries began when Ray purchased surplus cleaning equipment from an out-of-business clothing cleaner in Huntington Beach, California. He used the tanks and much of the plumbing from the equipment to develop a new process for manufacturing metal and ceramic parts. Together with a friend who was physicist, Ray perfected the process for making useable parts. Their first parts were made for the aerospace industry, small rocket nozzles made from ceramic material that would handle the high temperatures of rocket exhaust. Millett soon became the leader in the metal injection molding process.
